Tomatillo Salsa

I've never made a tomatillo salsa but since I've been trying some new things lately, I decided it would be the perfect time. My boyfriend and I were having some friends over for tacos and Tecate on Monday for Cinco de Mayo, and I thought it would be fun to make some salsa.

I hunted down this recipe from Garnish with Lemon that seemed like a good recipe for starters. Some others suggested roasting the tomatillos first, but I had a lot going on and opted for a non-roasted recipe.

In case you aren't familiar with a tomatillo, this is what they look like sliced open. They're lightweight and come in various shades of green, from darker richer green to a yellow-ish green like the one shown below. The inside is more spongy, unlike a green tomato.

I don't own a food processor (gasp!) and tend to make a lot of things in the blender - pesto, pancake batter, kimchi juice, and now salsa.

Here's what everything looks like all blended up. The ingredients will blend easily in your blender, so if you don't own a food processor, don't worry. You'll be fine here. 

What you're left with is a semi-frothy substance that's a light or minty green. I'm assuming this depends on the color of tomatillos. I chose lighter colored ones instead of darker. Once the salsa sat in the fridge, it did seem to turn a bolder shade of green, as shown in the bottom photo.

I only made one change to this recipe. I added some fresh lime juice (about a half a lime), which was something I noticed in the other recipes for roasted tomatillos. I like lime and thought it was a good addition.

My boyfriend really liked this recipe. I actually made two salsas that day, one tomato and this one. He said this was definitely his favorite. We also used it as a sauce on our surf and turf tacos!

Short Rib Lettuce Wraps & Dumpling Salad

This weekend's new recipe was made with slow cooked short ribs. I was lucky enough to find some good ones at the grocery store this time! My favorite way to cook short ribs is to slow cook them. The meat gets very tender after 7-8 hours of cooking and basically falls off the bone (and is easy to shred).

I used this recipe for the sauce in the Crock Pot but only used 2 lbs of short ribs. It's slightly different than the one I've used in the past. I don't think the curry flavor came out as much as I thought it would, but the flavor was still good. It's possible I just didn't use enough.

The recipe for peanut sauce made way more sauce than 2 people could eat, so I saved it to be used for peanut chicken this week.

I served the wraps with a salad recipe I found from My Korean Kitchen. Both of these recipes are also on my Pinterest board for Asian Inspired Recipes. If you follow me there, go ahead and repin them!

Making the dressing for the dumpling salad

The gochujang might be hard to find around here. You typically have to get it from an Asian grocery store. Mine is from Koreatown in NYC. It costs about $6-$7 but you'll get your money's worth, I promise.

Most of the ingredients I'm using here are Korean

The rice wine vinegar and sesame oil were both bought locally. The sesame seeds were another Asian grocery store find. You can buy them in your seasonings aisle at the generic grocery store but you'll pay an arm and a leg for them. Look in the international aisle for a cheaper version so you don't end up paying $5 for 1/2 cup of seeds.

Preparing veggies for the salad

Mango salsa - mango, lime juice, cilantro, green onion, jalapeno, salt

Ready to make lettuce wraps - peanut sauce not shown

I decided to add some alfalfa sprouts to our wraps. I really like sprouts and thought they were a good addition.

The final result - I'd say the photo did not do it justice!